What is the deal with Controller additions and helper methods!?

rubyonrails-core
1

I have ben struggling the past two days getting a this tiny piece of functionality to work without any success :frowning:

Trying to add a simple helper method to my views in order to ensure links are only displayed if the user has the proper rights to access that functionality.

      def show_link(object, label = nil)         label ||= auth_labels[:show]         if can?(:read, object)           link_to(label, object)         end       end

But using link_to from within this context, somehow I don't have access to the controller variable used internally, fx in url_for.

      def url_for(options = {})         ...         when :back           escape = false           controller.request.env["HTTP_REFERER"] || 'javascript:history.back()'         else         ...       end

If I output self in the show_link method, I can see that my current context of self is ProjectsController, so I guess it makes sense that I don't have a method controller inside a controller? I access my helper method from here:

# index.html.erb <%= show_link project %>

And the setup

if defined? ActionController   ActionController::Base.class_eval do     AuthAssistant::ViewHelpers::AuthLink   end end

# module AuthAssistant::ViewHelpers::AuthLink

      def self.included(base)

base.helper_method :create_link, :delete_link, :edit_link, :show_link

base.helper_method :new_link, :destroy_link, :update_link, :read_link       end

2

But using link_to from within this context, somehow I don't have access to the controller variable used internally, fx in url_for.

That's because the controller itself has its own implementation of url_for, if you attempt to reuse those helpers in the controller it's just not going to work. Given that link_to is defined in the same module as the view's url_for, you probably won't be able to get this working without serious hacks or code duplication. But I'd question what you're trying to do here, why are your controllers generating html without using views?

3

A “sometimes” use-case is putting a link using link_to in the flash.

4

I’d recommend render_to_string :inline for this case.

Yehuda Katz Architect | Engine Yard (ph) 718.877.1325

5

All I actually wanted to do was to add some helper methods for my views. I kind of "solved" the problem by rethinking my approach, as I could see I had gone down a "blind alley".

module ApplicationHelper   def self.auth_assist_helpers     include AuthAssistant::ViewHelpers   end end

module AuthAssistant   module ViewHelpers     include AuthAssistant::ViewHelpers::AuthLink     include AuthAssistant::ViewHelpers::RestLink     include AuthAssistant::ViewHelpers::AuthMenuItem   end end